Today I’m back with an amazing story with indigenous shepherds and some stunning photos. This remains one of the best and most memorable experiences I had on this trip around turkey.
On my cycling tour I often came across shepherds with large herds of sheep and goats in the middle of nowhere and I had so many questions whirling around in my head, where do these people sleep? how do they manage their herds of 1000+ sheep? How do they protect themselves from the bears and wolves? How do they survive in the freezing temperatures?…. And so on
Upon my arrival to Agri Dâgi ( Mount Ararat), the highest peak in turkey, where the temperatures goes bellow minus 30 degrees Celsius. I decided to leave my bicycle in a village and take my backpack and go find shepherds and stay with them for a few days.
After awhile, I managed to find them ( it was very difficult to get closer to them as their Kangal dogs are very dangerous and they don’t joke) I introduced myself to them and they accepted that I stay and film them. I used google translate for communication. It took a while to get our ideas across, but it was worth it.
We spent the whole day walking ( I was actually running to get the best shot in golden hours)
As it started getting dark we were still walking towards the camp that was situated in the middle of the mountains. I was amazed how they can herd over 1000sheep in the dark and no one gets lost. After we arrived to the camp , i didn’t see any tents , or a house or anything! Just a few bags of clothes and food. I thought they will set a tent but i got shocked when they started cooking in that very cold weather!The fire was our savior, few meters away of it , It’s -6 degrees Celsius as we were at 3000m altitude.
It was one of the best night in my journey around turkey, we had great conversations and laughs around the fire. The moment they wanted to go to sleep i was waiting they will set a tent , but i was shocked how they sleep. I followed Adam, when he went between the sheep and started looking for a goat in between 1000 ones . He tied it to his arm with a rope and covered himself in a waterproof blanket he made himself out of a blanket and thick plastic and kept his shoes on. He told me that the goat he tied up was the leader of the herd and if he goes somewhere , the whole group will follow. That’s why he tied it to his arm in case it goes and wakes him up. Each shepherd did the same thing and slept.
I went back to my tent, it was freezing. My head was spinning with even more questions: How they gonna get warm in that blanket ? How do they survive in the rain and winter? We are living a very fancy life compared to these guys. Doesn’t matter your situation, it’s still very fancy compared to this conditions. At that moment, I remembered when my father used to say, “it’s not easy putting bread on the table.”